NATO: Alliance, Russia Agree to Step Up Cooperation

February 04, 2002 00:00 GMT

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NATO: Alliance, Russia Agree to Step Up Cooperation

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Rome, 4 February 2002 (RFE/RL) -- NATO Secretary-General Lord George Robertson and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov today agreed to step up their cooperation in the fight against international terrorism. At a seminar in Rome, Robertson said that it is time to translate the antiterror cooperation into action, especially in the realm of technological and biological weapons. Robertson and Ivanov agreed that military action is only one weapon against terror.

Also today, Ivanov again dismissed U.S. concerns that Iran is a potential threat. He said Russia has "perfectly normal relations with Iran."

Russia has supported the U.S.-led campaign against terrorism in Afghanistan but officials have said Russia is against expanding the military campaign to Iraq. U.S. President George W. Bush named Iraq, Iran, and North Korea as forming an "axis of evil."